Like I posted in the other thread, I thought judging this contest was an uncomfortable experience so I want to explain to the entrants the procedure I followed. I know when I participated last year I was dismayed by some of the judges results, so I wanted to take the time and and least give you guys an idea where I was coming from.

1) Everyone got 40 points for making a 4k game.

2) The remaining points were divided evenly for gfx and gameplay so you could get a max of 30 points for gfx and 30 points for gameplay.

3) Average for both was 15 so if you had a game with half decent gfx and some gameplay I awarded 70 points.

4) I added bonuses for stuff that I know took alot of effort and enginuity to fit into 4k. I tried to note those in the comments.

I felt like a complete jerk rating some games so low, but in my opinion there were a handful of games that were just head and shoulders above the rest; miners4k for gameplay and ares for gfx. Those were the gold standard.

I found judging the contest to be very difficult because there were so many different genres, After the fact I thought of changing my rational to include the genre. Overall, I am not impressed with puzzle games in 4k, it's just not much of a challenge, unless the author did something interesting like sokoban4k.

Finally, great job everyone, there are some really great games in the contest this year.

I felt like a complete jerk rating some games so low, but in my opinion there were a handful of games that were just head and shoulders above the rest; miners4k for gameplay and ares for gfx. Those were the gold standard.

As long as you voted according to what you believed should be true, I don't see any reason to beat yourself up over it. Being a judge is a hard job, especially when you're sensitive to the fact that all the author's hopes and dreams are contained in those 4096 bytes of data. While it may look a little funny to have 80's in the places where others put 90's, there's nothing that would have really changed by using a higher scoring scale. You would have still scored everything with the same relative distances. Thus the results are good, and I for one am happy with them.

If there's anything I would have liked to have seen, it's a set of "Best in Class" awards. That way, even the best puzzle variations can stand out a head above the rest.

I am very thankful for the honesty that you and the other judges put into the judging. It shows my 2 weakest points: design and getting good graphics in the game. Next year, I will skip the clones and try to come up with something original.

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